The Chorister at the Abbey Read Online Free Page B

she had genuinely warmed to the new female vicar.
    ‘There are preparations to do for the Christingle service,’ Suzy explained. ‘Oh, and that reminds me, Jake wants to go up to Fellside Fellowship sometime over the holiday. It’s that jazz and rock ‘big band’ they’re running. He reckons he might be able to play with them.’
    Robert groaned.
    ‘Oh, come on, you old fart,’ Suzy laughed. ‘It sounds quite nice for young people, and I’m pleased Jake is taking an interest. Beats going over to Oliver’s to mess about in ‘jam sessions’ in the barn and read dirty magazines. Anyway, if you don’t want to go, I’ll take him.’
    Robert knew Suzy was trying really hard with her teenage son, and that she was under a lot of pressure from Jake’s father. The Newcastle flat hadn’t been glamorous enough for Nigel’s trendy young girlfriend and they had recently separated. Hurt and resentful, Nigel was now on the prowl for problems. His ways of dealing with another man’s role in his children’s life were either to find fault, to ignore Robert’s existence or to carp on about his age.
    But Robert, stooping to arrange the sticks in the grate, was a fit man, with brownish hair and a warm smile. He seemed younger than his years. He knew Suzy was looking at him; he turned and smiled.
    ‘I do love you, Suzy,’ he said, conversationally.
    ‘So you should. Oh, by the way …’ Suzy said, talking to his back as he went on making the fire, ‘I forgot to mention that I saw Lynn Clifford in Tesco’s last night. She’s having people over tonight, including Edwin and some new woman she’s befriended. She asked us too, but I said we had to be in for when Molly gets back.’
    For the first year or two after moving to Tarnfield, Suzy had been seriously lonely. But since living with Robert she had slowly met more people, including the Cliffords from Uplands. Lynn was older than Suzy but she had been a great support. And from Lynn’s uncritical kindness a real friendship had grown, though Suzy still found Lynn’s marriage to Neil Clifford hard to understand. But then every marriage was a mystery, even when you were in it, Suzy thought. She was glad she was out of hers.
    Robert interrupted her thoughts. ‘You met Lynn Clifford in Tesco’s? I thought you were against big supermarkets?’
    ‘We all have our weaknesses. Mine is their new blueberry yoghurt.’
    ‘So you have no principles!’
    ‘Shut up or you won’t either when I get my hands on them!’
    Robert laughed. They had made a pact when Suzy moved in, never to take umbrage. Both had been in marriages where tension had ruled.
    ‘Lynn was looking harassed,’ Suzy said. ‘I think Chloe’s been a bit of handful since she came back from university for the holidays.’
    ‘Well, it must be difficult when kids are away all term and then suddenly come home. We’ve got all that to come.’
    Have we? thought Suzy in surprise. They never talked about Robert’s relationship with her children, or discussed the next stage of their own relationship. The newspaper under the logs reared as the flames lifted it.
    ‘I hope that’s your bloody Daily Telegraph ,’ Suzy said. ‘I don’t know why we have it in the house.’
    ‘You’re right. Your Guardian burns better. More hot air, especially the media section.’
    He grinned at her. And it was true: they could say anything to each other. But that didn’t mean that they said everything – there was still a big silence on the subject of what would happen next. The sense that the Spencer family had moved in pro tem still lingered.
    Just as well, Suzy thought. When Robert came over to join her on the sofa, she went back to living in the present, which was just about as much as she could deal with after the drama of the last few years. I don’t want anything to change, Suzy thought. I have what I need, which is peace and stability. She felt Robert’s arms round her, and the warmth of the flickering fire filled the